i wasn't born in a barn, but i got there as fast as i could.

I hope all youz guyz had an absolutely fantastic long weekend! Or if you’re like manfriend and had to work yesterday, I hope you had an absolutely fantastic regular-length weekend! I was lucky enough to ride for three days in a row and it was AWESOME. And I will tell you why.

It is because two of those rides were on Addy, and she’s so awesome blah blah blah I love her so much etc. But the other was on another horse.

To be exact, on Courtney’s (from Vintage Virginia) horse. I’ll give you a minute to go check out her blog right now- she’s got really cute horses, does cool projects, and has a kickin’ sense of style. In short, she’s awesome.

You may remember that a couple weeks ago I mentioned that trail rides totally freak me out and I very much like to be contained by a fence. Courtney, being totally baller, invited me out to ride one of her ponies at a park nearby! We both brought our menfolk just in case one of us was the Craigslist killer, but luckily there were no murder shenanigans.

Let me just say that this girl has some fantastic horses. We went and played around in the ring for a while, with me riding her wonderful Appy Vintage and Courtney on her 6yo baby Berry. So cute! Vintage was such an old pro and handled me flopping around without flicking an ear. We popped over a crossrail a couple times, and even hopped over a vertical!

Look at pony fly!

It was sooo weird to be on a horse that wasn’t Addy- I haven’t ridden any other horses since last September. Vinny doesn’t idle at a hand gallop and actually required me to use my leg for speed. But little pony had the smoothest canter! Seriously, it was like gliding around the ring. I fell in love with her almost immediately.

Then it was time for actual trail riding! Turns out that James Long Park has pretty extensive trails, and we took full advantage of them. (If you’re in the northern VA area I would definitely recommend heading out here, it was awesome!). This was one of Berry’s first outings this year and she handled it all so well. Vintage, being an amazing horse that I love, was an angel and took me through the woods and up and down hills without any problems.

It was super fun to get to chat with Courtney and bond over horses with a new friend! Since the horses were so well behaved, we were able to just relax and enjoy a beautiful day.

Once we emerged from the woods, we were on the opposite side of the park from where the trailer was parked. So we decided to give the horses a little canter stretch across the beautifully manicured flat grass. Turns out that the reason it was so flat and nicely manicured is because it was a soccer field and I think we weren’t really supposed to ride on it, buuuuuut come on people. Perfectly smooth ground. Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing.

The trailer was parked in a field so we decided to do a couple more laps running around before cooling out. Yeehaw! Little Appy had mad ups, she really kicked it into a higher gear! This coming from a trail-riding-weenie: this pony took such good care of me that I didn’t even get nervous running around in a field. It was awesome! It actually made me realize why people get so exhilarated on cross country. Berry seemed to have a blast running around too, and both horses wanted to keep going when we walked to cool them out.

Vinny leading the way and Berry saying hi.Vinny looking like a little lady and Berry saying HAYYYYBoth of us saying, “One more lap? Don’t mind if we do.”Vinny saying “WTF is this stupid chair seat you’re doing, get off my face and let me go run around a little more”Having a stupid amount of fun

Never fear, we did not forget about the menfolk. Turns out they’re both huge movie buffs that greatly enjoy guns, so I don’t even think they noticed when we left or came back. We both had to holler a couple times to get their attention.

Short version: I got to meet another horse blogger who I really admire, had an awesome time getting to know her and her girls, manfriend is pumped about a new friend, and it was an amazing time. Can’t wait to go play again soon 🙂

Well, the whole area used to be very horsey until it turned in to a suburban nightmarescape. Frying Pan Park is really close in, and has a ton of riding space and an XC course. There are riding trails at Great Falls, too. I wish it wasn’t quite so far for me to haul down there, or I’d join you for a ride sometime!

Yay!! like x1000! It was so much fun! We should go to the battlefield next!! There’s lots of open space, we could canter forever! (well, maybe not forever, but enough that we would probably get sick of cantering!)
I feel like I said this like 20 times, but I loved watching you jump Vinny! It was so perfect!

Cantering forever sounds perfect, we can totally count it as conditioning work or something! Fun AND good for us.
I LOVED getting to jump around!! For realz, I will hop on her any time/please I would love to play with her more! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing your girl 🙂